MYSTERY and AUTHORITY in the WRITINGS of SHENOUTE1 Hugo

MYSTERY AND AUTHORITY IN THE WRITINGS OF SHENOUTE1

Hugo Lundhaug MF Norwegian School of Theology

If you have faith, then you have the fullness of the mystery.2 If you do not have faith, then you do not have hope in the mystery and the Lord of the Mystery. (Shenoute, And It Happened One Day, AV 234–35)3

Introduction

In the fĳifth century there is one fĳigure who towers above all else in the history of Upper Egyptian monasticism. This fĳigure is Shenoute of Atripe, who at his death around 465 had led his monastic community for an impressive period of 80 years.4 His long tenure at the helm of the White

1 It is an honour to have the opportunity to present this study of the writings of the greatest of Coptic authors, Shenoute, in appreciation of the work of Einar Thomassen, in particular his important effforts in establishing a network of younger scholars of Coptic literature in the Nordic countries and beyond, for which many of us are deeply grateful. 2 Cf. Col 1:26–27. 3 Coptic text in Louis-Théophile Lefort, “Catéchèse christologique de Chenoute,” ZÄS 80 (1955): 43. I refer to Shenoute’s writings using titles based on their incipits (as listed in Stephen Emmel, Shenoute’s Literary Corpus [2 vols.; CSCO 599–600, Subsidia 111–112; Leuven: Peeters, 2004], xviii–xxii), followed by a reference to the manuscript and page number of the White Monastery codex from which the Coptic text is taken (using the sigla established by Tito Orlandi but omitting the abbreviation MONB, for “Monasterio Bianco” [see the list in Emmel, Shenoute’s Literary Corpus, xxiii–xxiv, and the description of the codices in ibid., 111–379]). In addition, I indicate in the footnotes which edition(s) of the Coptic text I have used, or, when the manuscript in question is unpublished, its collection and call number (in accordance with the principles outlined in Emmel, Shenoute’s Literary Corpus, 39–45). A special case is constituted by the text I Am Amazed, where I also refer to the numeration scheme of Tito Orlandi’s edition whenever this is possible, since this has become the standard for this particular text. Due to the often unreliable nature of the published editions of Shenoute’s writings, I have as far as possible also consulted photographs of the manuscripts. All translations are my own unless otherwise stated. 4 On the life of Shenoute, see, e.g., Emmel, Shenoute’s Literary Corpus, 6–14; Stephen Emmel, “Shenoute the Monk: The Early Monastic Career of Shenoute the Archimandrite,” in Il monachesimo tra eredità e aperture: Atti del simposio “Testi e temi nella tradizione del monachesimo cristiano” per il 50o anniversario dell’Istituto Monastico di Sant’ Anselmo, Roma, 28 maggio–1o giugno 2002 (ed. Maciej Bielawski and Daniël Hombergen; SA 140, Analecta Monastica 8; Rome: Centro Studi S. Anselmo/Herder, 2004), 151–74; Stephen Emmel, “Shenoute’s Place in the History of Monasticism,” in Akhmim and Sohag (vol. 1 260 hugo lundhaug

Monastery,5 coupled with the fact that he was a highly prolifĳic writer, makes his corpus of writings a unique window into the life, organization, and theology of Upper Egyptian monasticism and its contexts in the fourth and fĳifth centuries.6 In a monastic community like that of the White monastery, which by its very nature was a closed, hierarchical community with strict rules and regulations governing extensive parts of the practical and intellectual lives of its members,7 questions concerning the sources of authority and of who was to administer and wield the powers of that authority were crucial. With ultimate authority resting on the manifestation and partial revelation of what Shenoute referred to as “the mystery and the Lord of the mystery,”8 questions concerning the correct content and acceptable

of Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt; ed. Gawdat Gabra and Hany N. Takla; Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 31–46. On the date of Shenoute’s death, see esp. Stephen Emmel, “From the Other Side of the Nile: Shenute and Panopolis,” in Perspectives on Panopolis: An Egyptian Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest: Acts from an International Symposium Held in Leiden on 16, 17 and 18 December 1998 (ed. A. Egberts, B. P. Muhs, and Jacques van der Vliet; Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 31; Leiden: Brill, 2002), 96–98. 5 In addition to what is now known as the White Monastery, Shenoute’s monastic community also included the so-called Red Monastery in the lower desert close to the village of Atripe, as well as a monastery of female monastics in the village itself. For the monastery of the female monastics and their relationship with Shenoute, see esp. Rebecca Krawiec, Shenoute & the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). 6 Thanks to the impressive cataloguing effforts of Stephen Emmel (Stephen Emmel, “Shenoute’s Literary Corpus” [PhD diss., Yale University, 1993], later published in a revised and updated version as Shenoute’s Literary Corpus), it is now possible to systematically study Shenoute’s literary corpus from the scattered remains of the close to 100 White Monastery codices containing Shenoute’s writings. The situation prior to Emmel’s work is aptly described by Janet A. Timbie, “The State of Research on the Career of Shenoute of Atripe,” in The Roots of Egyptian Christianity [ed. Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring; SAC; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986], 258–70). 7 On the rules and organization of Shenoute’s monastic community, see esp. Bentley Layton, “Rules, Patterns, and the Exercise of Power in Shenoute’s Monastery: The Problem of World Replacement and Identity Maintenance,” JECS 15/1 (2007): 45–73; Bentley Layton, “The Ancient Rules of Shenoute’s Monastic Federation,” in Akhmim and Sohag (vol. 1 of Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt; ed. Gawdat Gabra and Hany N. Takla; Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 73–81; Bentley Layton, “The Monastic Rules of Shenoute,” in Monastic Estates in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt: Ostraca, Papyri, and Essays in Memory of Sarah Clackson (P. Clackson) (ed. Anne Boud’hors, et al.; American Studies in Papyrology 46; Cincinnati, Ohio: The American Society of Papyrologists, 2009), 170–77; Bentley Layton, “Social Structure and Food Consumption in an Early Christian Monastery: The Evidence of Shenoute’s Canons and the White Monastery Federation A.D. 385–465,” Mus 115 (2002): 25–55. 8 And It Happened One Day, AV 235 (Lefort, “Catéchèse christologique de Chenoute,” 43).